By Abu Micheal.
To understand Lokoja I State Constituency in Kogi State today is to understand the evolution of representation itself in the Confluence capital.
From the days of the United Nigeria Congress Party, UNCP, under the Abacha transition, when politics was still largely controlled by old established families and Lokoja’s cosmopolitan status already made it the most competitive constituency in the entire Kogi West, through the dawn of the Fourth Republic in 1999 when the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, dominated the space, to the present All Progressives Congress, APC, era, Lokoja I has always demanded a special kind of legislator.
This is not a rural backwater where a lawmaker can hide. It is the state capital, housing Ward A, B, C, D and E, with riverine communities in Adankolo, the bustling markets of Kabawa, Kpata and Felele, the hillside settlements of Karaworo, Mount Patti and the dense urban sprawl that hosts civil servants, students of the Federal University Lokoja, Kogi State Polytechnic, traders, artisans, Okada riders and every ethnic group in Nigeria. No lawmaker has ever met all the yearning and aspirations of such a constituency at once, because needs are infinite and resources are finite.
History teaches us that. After the UNCP experiment, the PDP years produced notable names who held Lokoja I. The late Hon. Musa Osuku, who also took the Lokoja/Kogi Federal Constituency shot from 1999 to 2003, was a grassroots mobilizer. Others followed in that PDP dominance era, each leaving footprints. Then came the late Architect Buba Jibril, who represented Lokoja I with distinction before his transition to the House of Representatives from 2007 until his demise in 2018, a man who brought architectural precision to legislative advocacy. The APC sweep of 2019, when the party won all 25 Assembly seats in Kogi State including the initially inconclusive Lokoja I seat, ushered in a new order.
Since then, the APC has consolidated Lokoja I as its stronghold. Yet if we trace that long line from UNCP through PDP to APC, we have rarely seen a lawmaker who combines private pedigree with public visibility as Hon. Bin-Ebaiya Shehu Tijjani, popularly known as Team BEST.
Hon. Bin-Ebaiya Shehu Tijjani did not emerge from nowhere. Before he ever sought office, he was already a household name in Lokoja. From his base in Lagos as a successful businessman and former Special Adviser to Governor Yahaya Bello on Water Resources, he was the toast of Lokoja for his quiet, methodical philanthropy. School fees were paid without camera, hospital bills were settled without press statements, water problems in compounds were fixed without noise, youth matters were attended to without demanding loyalty. That is why his election in 2023 was not an imposition but a referendum, the people voting for a man they already knew, tested and trusted long before politics. And when he entered the 8th Assembly, he did not come to learn on the job.
His legislative footprint proves he is a work in progress, but a work in progress that already stands the test of modern day representation. The primary work of a legislator is lawmaking, oversight and representation, and on all three he has shown competence, character and capacity. When the Marine Police Station in Lokoja collapsed and waterway insecurity threatened riverine dwellers and traders, he moved for its urgent rehabilitation. When fire razed the GSM Village at Kpata Market and destroyed millions of naira belonging to Lokoja youths who are the engine of the digital economy, he raised a motion of urgent public importance demanding government palliative and intervention. When the Felele highway kept claiming the lives of Federal University Lokoja students and residents, his motion paved the way for the approval of an alternative route, saving lives. When drug abuse, rape and gender-based violence surged in the capital city, he demanded the establishment of a State Rehabilitation Centre, a humane, forward-thinking proposal that placed Lokoja I at the centre of social reform.
He championed the expansion and strengthening of the Lokoja mass transit system to protect residents from arbitrary Keke and Okada charges. He pushed for the introduction of Maritime Courses in Kogi State Polytechnic, Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara, and Kogi State University Kabba, positioning Kogi youths to benefit from our vast water resources just as Lagos has done.
The Lawmaker stood on the floor to defend the Maigari of Lokoja stool, calling for respect for the traditional institution after the appointment and turbaning of HRM Alhaji Ibrahim Muhammadu Kabir Maikarfi IV, showing that he is culturally grounded yet urbane, exposed yet deeply rooted.
These are not abstract motions. They touch security, economy, education, health, youth and culture, the real issues of Lokoja I. Beyond motions, his compassion has remained his trademark. Women, youths and children remain his priority, with personal interventions in emergencies, school fees, hospital bills and small business support well known across the five wards.
A mother in Adankolo captured it plainly when she said before now nobody remembered us, today we have a voice because our lawmaker remembers us.
Experience has taught him humility. He has come down from his high horse, he has listened. In a cosmopolitan constituency where the lawmaker has no hiding place, listening is leadership. He has built bridges across Wards A to E without bias, defended our traditional institution, supported our youth and projected Lokoja positively at the state level.
Hon. Team Best possesses the full qualities expected of a modern lawmaker, accessibility and responsiveness to constituents, intellectual depth to initiate people-centred legislation, moral courage to speak truth on the floor, empathy to feel the pulse of the poor, integrity to manage scarce resources, loyalty to party yet independence of thought, vision to see beyond the next election, and humility to accept that representation is a continuum.
It was therefore no surprise that on May 20, 2026, Hon. Bin-Ebaiya emerged, securing the APC return ticket for Lokoja I through affirmation in all five Wards. Party members turned out en masse at 10 a.m. across the constituency, with INEC officials monitoring, affirming him as their choice. The affirmation was not imposed, it was earned through grassroots engagement.
As political activities gather momentum for 2027, with APC, PDP and ADC preparing, Lokoja I cannot afford to gamble with its future. In politics as in life, a winning team is not changed. Replacing a performing, widely known and visible lawmaker who has proven that representation can be effective, purposeful and people-centred with an untested alternative will only take us backwards.
Second term should be based on achievements, not sentiment, and his achievements are measurable, published and verifiable.
As we prepare for the forthcoming general election, we must take the unusual path and for once embrace continuity. The time to change the gear of representation in Lokoja I by returning a ranking member who is well prepared for the task ahead looks good for 2027.
For the greater good of the constituent, for the greater gain of Lokoja I, all hands must be on deck, elders, women, youths, artisans, traders, students, residents and indigenes.
Hon. Bin-Ebaiya Shehu Tijjani has proven to be widely known, has accomplishments that still stand the test of modern day representation, and has shown that he is indeed a work in progress, getting better, getting stronger, getting more responsive. Let us keep winning with the winning card.
– Abu Micheal writes from Lokoja.
